BENZEMA. After an injury during collective training for the France team, Karim Benzema forfeited Saturday, November 19, for the 2022 World Cup. The Blues will be deprived of the 2022 Ballon d’Or, which will not be replaced, announced Didier Deschamps.
[Mis à jour le 20 novembre 2022 à 12h29] “Reason tells me to leave my place”. With these words entrusted via a post on the Instagram network, Karim Benzema confirmed his package for the 2022 World Cup, information made official a few minutes earlier via a press release from the French Football Federation, the FFF, Saturday November 19 at 11:35 p.m. French time. This package seemed inevitable after the premature exit of the French striker from the collective training of the Blues on Saturday evening in Doha, three days before the entry into the running of the French team, reigning world champion, against the Australia on Tuesday (kick-off 8 p.m. French time).
The team newspaper evoked a few minutes later “a sharp muscle pain in the left quadriceps”. The examinations taken in the evening at the premises of the prestigious Aspetar medical facility in Doha confirmed an unequivocal verdict: “a lesion of the femoral rectus, which will require a three-week recovery period” according to the same press release from the federation. It was too much to participate in the group stage of the World Cup and even hypothetically in a large part of the possible knockout matches in the event of qualification of the Blues. What to ratify in the wake of a package. Karim Benzema is thus deprived of a second World Cup, he who had not participated in the 2010 World Cup and the Knysna scandal, had reached the quarter-finals with the Blues in 2014 in Brazil before being sidelined ahead of Euro 2016 and the 2018 World Cup.
Sunday November 20, Didier Deschamps spoke on the show Telefoot and announced that the Frenchman would not be replaced by another attacker just hours before the first match of the World Cup against Australia. “Karim has felt muscle pain. He has too much damage in relation to the deadlines that are coming. Will he be replaced? No.”. Relaunched on the subject and on the why, the coach replied quite curtly that it was his decision and that there were enough attacking players in the group.
Didier Deschamps made his disappointment known in the wake of the package announcement. “I am extremely sad for Karim who had made this World Cup a major objective. Despite this new blow for the French team, I have full confidence in my group. We will do everything to meet the immense challenge which awaits us”, he underlines in the press release from the FFF. A few minutes later, Karim Benzema spoke in turn via a message on his Instagram account. “In my life, I never thought of giving up, but tonight I have to think about the team as I always have, so reason tells me to give up my place to someone who can help our group to have a great World Cup. Thank you for all your messages of support”.
Interviewed on the show Telefoot, Sunday, November 20, Didier Deschamps explained how Karim Benzema was injured. “It wasn’t in the opposition, it was in the game, he had played games before. Everything was under control, he was taking another step, as was the case with Varane. It wasn’t not even on an acceleration, a strike.” The coach then added that injuries could happen in training, that it was not a relapse. “It’s a big blow, of course. Karim had done everything. He was in session and with an almost innocuous gesture… here it is, it’s the other leg and in front while it was the ischio on the other”, detailed Didier Deschamps.
If the medical verdict dismisses the thesis of the relapse of a hamstring injury that Karim Benzema has been dragging for more than a month, he who had hardly played in competition with his club of real Madrid for more than a month, the injury of the French striker will raise many questions. Was it imperative to accelerate his return for participation in the first match against Australia on Tuesday? While the training of the French team on Saturday evening in Doha, three days before the entry into the running of the Blues on Tuesday against Australia, was to mark a rise in power with the highly anticipated return of Karim Benzema and Raphaël Varane in collective training, after several days away marked by care and exercises aimed at getting them back on their feet and reassuring them before the first match, this trial run finally turned into a disaster. According to RMC Sport, the former Lyonnais was not injured in a shock or contact with a partner, but following a race, immediately feeling “sharp pain” in his left leg.